The Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) Key Component Activities (KCA) include the application of biostatistics, epidemiology and informatics advanced methods to the research design, conduct, and analysis of state-of-the-art laboratory, clinical and community-based studies. The BERD provides expertise, collaborative support and training through the Oklahoma Shared Clinical and Translational Resources (OSCTR) to students, trainees, faculty members and health care professionals at all of the institutions that are part of this proposal. Those include the seven colleges at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), OU-Norman, OU-Tulsa, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF), Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, Oklahoma State Health Department, Chickasaw Nation, Cherokee Nation, Choctaw Nation, Oklahoma City Indian Clinic, , Medical University of South Carolina, University of Arkansas Health Sciences Center and the American Indian tribal health centers from the 38 federally recognized tribes in Oklahoma and Kansas. Members of the BERD will integrate the disciplines of biostatistics, epidemiology, and informatics with other OSCTR activities to facilitate the development and evaluation of disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment approaches to improve health and health outcomes in Oklahoma and partnering IDeA states. The OSCTR activities will include basic medical science laboratory research, preclinical studies, randomized controlled clinical trials, translational studies and community-based studies, which are aimed at improving the understanding of disease processes and their related risk factors, evaluating the validity of innovative diagnostic methods, estimating the efficacy and effectiveness of potential therapeutics and enhancing the adoption of best treatment and prevention strategies in the community. The BERD KCA will build on existing efforts of the OUHSC Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and OMRF to organize biostatistics, epidemiology and informatics resources in the OSCTR. It will enhance these efforts by providing an umbrella organization to bring together a diversity of campus resources in biostatistics, epidemiology, and informatics into a single entity. This concentrated focus of research design and analysis expertise will greatly facilitate research quality, productivity and the translation of research findings to practice in the community/population.